Elizabeth Freya Garbus (born April 11, 1970) is an American documentary film director and producer. Notable documentaries Garbus has made are The Farm: Angola, USA, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, Bobby Fischer Against the World, Love, Marilyn, What Happened, Miss Simone?, and Becoming Cousteau. She is co-founder and co-director of the New York City-based documentary film production company Story Syndicate.
Early life and education Garbus grew up in New York City. She is the daughter of civil rights attorney Martin Garbus and writer, therapist, and social worker Ruth Meitin Garbus. Her family is Jewish.
In 1992, Garbus graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in history and semiotics from Brown University.
Career While in high school, Garbus made a documentary about students' last day of school. At Brown she took classes in video production in addition to her major subjects.
After college, Garbus worked as an intern at Miramax. She eventually landed a job working for filmmaker Jonathan Stack.
They co-directed The Farm: Angola, USA, which was nominated for a 1998 Academy Award. The film garnered multiple awards, including the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and two Emmy awards.
In 1998, Garbus co-founded an independent documentary production company, Moxie Firecracker Films, with fellow Brown University alumna Rory Kennedy. They combined the names of each woman's previous production company for their joint one: Kennedy's was called Moxie and Garbus’ was called Firecracker.
In 2002, Garbus' film The Execution of Wanda Jean was shown at the Sundance Film Festival.
In 2003, Garbus directed The Nazi Officer's Wife, which was narrated by Susan Sarandon and Julia Ormond. ¹ In 2005, Garbus collaborated with partner Rory Kennedy to executive-produce Street Fight about the 2002 Newark mayoral election; it was nominated for an Academy Award.
In 2006, the pair worked with actress Rosie Perez to produce her film Yo Soy Boricua.
In 2007, Garbus' film Ghosts of Abu Ghraib premiered at Sundance. It and won an Emmy for Outstanding Non-Fiction Special of 2007.
In 2007, Garbus directed the film Coma, which aired on HBO in July of that year. The film follows four brain-injured patients receiving treatment at the JFK-Johnson Medical Facility in New Jersey.
In 2009, Garbus’s film, Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech (HBO) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
In 2011, There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane was chosen to be a part of HBO’s Documentary Films Summer Series.
In 2011, Garbus directed Bobby Fischer Against the World, which chronicled the great Cold War showdown between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in 1972. The film premiered on HBO and opened the Premiere Documentary Section of the Sundance Film Festival.
Bobby Fischer Against the World, opened the documentary section of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, reserved for master American documentary filmmakers.
In 2011, Garbus was nominated a second time for an Academy Award, for her film Killing in the Name, which she produced with her producing partner Rory Kennedy.
Garbus' 2012 film, Love, Marilyn featured Elizabeth Banks, Ellen Burstyn, Glenn Close, Viola Davis, Jennifer Ehle, Lindsay Lohan, Lili Taylor, Uma Thurman, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood and others reading from Monroe’s never-before-seen private writings. The film opened as a Gala Premiere at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and was acquired by HBO for a 2013 debut.
Love, Marilyn, internationally opened as a Gala Premiere at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and aired on HBO summer of 2013.
In 2014, A Good Job: Stories of the FDNY, which Garbus directed and produced, premiered on HBO and featured first-hand accounts of veteran firefighters and interviews conducted by former FDNY member Steve Buscemi.
In 2015, she directed What Happened, Miss Simone? a documentary about the singer Nina Simone. What Happened, Miss Simone? was the opening night film for Sundance Film Festival, it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature 2015, a Grammy for Best Music Film 2015, and Garbus was nominated for a DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary. The film was released by Netflix on June 26, 2015. It won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary.
In January 2018, The New York Times announced that Garbus and a documentary crew had been "basically living in the...newsroom since Inauguration Day [with] full access to the Russia investigation and much more." The completed work called The Fourth Estate aired on Showtime in May 2018.
In May 2018, HBO premiered Garbus' documentary, A Dangerous Son, which portrays three families as they deal with severe mental illness of three different children, and their efforts to get treatment and navigate the health care system.
In September 2020, Garbus released All In: The Fight for Democracy, a documentary film about voting rights in the United States. It featured voting rights activist Stacey Abrams and other American politicians, including former United States Attorney General Eric Holder and then-Representative Marcia Fudge.
In 2021, Garbus released Becoming Cousteau, a documentary about Jacques Cousteau for National Geographic Documentary Films. In 2022, Garbus directed Harry & Meghan, a documentary series for Netflix revolving around Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
Personal life Garbus is married to film producer Dan Cogan; the two have a daughter, Amelia, and a son, Theodore.
Filmography Year Film Director Producer Notes 1996 Final Judgment: The Execution of Antonio James 1998 The Farm: Angola, USA 1999 Different Moms 2000 Epidemic Africa Documentary short 2000 The Changing Face of Beauty Co-directed with Rory Kennedy 2000 Juvies 2000 True Life – MTV Episode: "The Travelers" 2002 The Execution of Wanda Jean 2002 Schooling Jewel 2003 Together: Stop Violence Against Women 2003 A Boy's Life 2003 The Nazi Officer's Wife 2003 Pandemic: Facing AIDS TV mini-series documentary 2003 Girlhood 2003 Con Man 2004 Indian Point: Imagining the Unimaginable 2005 Xiara's Song Cinemax 2005 P.O.V. Episode: Street Fight 2006 Yo soy Boricua, pa'que tu lo sepas! Co-directed with Rosie Perez 2006 Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America Episode: "The Homestead Strike" 2007 Addiction Episode: "Brain Imaging Brookhaven National Laboratory" 2007 Coma IV 2007 Ghosts of Abu Ghraib 2009 Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech 2010 Family Affair 2010 The Fence (La Barda) Documentary short 2010 Killing in the Name Documentary short 2011 Bobby Fischer Against the World 2011 There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane 2011 The Fight for Fischer's Estate Video documentary short 2011 Chess History Video documentary short 2011 Focus Forward: Short Films, Big Ideas Documentary short 2012 Love, Marilyn 2012 RobotDocumentary short 2014 A Good Job: Stories of the FDNY 2013 Before the Spring: After the Fall 2015 What Happened, Miss Simone? 2016 Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper 2018 The Fourth Estate 2018 A Dangerous Son 2019 Who Killed Garrett Phillips? Two-part documentary2020 Lost Girls 2020I'll Be Gone in the Dark Six episodes2020All In: The Fight for Democracy2020Ariana Grande: Excuse Me, I Love YouConcert film2021 The Handmaid's Tale 2021 Becoming Cousteau 2021 Fauci 2022 Harry & Meghan Documentary series; six episodes 2023 Last Call: When a Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York Documentary series 2025 Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer Documentary series 2025 One Night in Idaho: The College Murders Documentary series 2026 Give Me the Ball! Co-directed with Elizabeth Wolff 2026 Dynasty: The Murdochs Documentary series 2026 A Killer Story Documentary series
Works and publications
Selected honors and awards Open Society's Center on Crime, Communities, and Culture, Fellow 1998: Sundance Film Festival, Documentary, Grand Jury Prize for The Farm: Angola, USA with Jonathan Stack – tied with Frat House 1998: L.A. Film Critics Association Awards, Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film for The Farm: Angola, USA with Jonathan Stack 1998: New York Film Critics Circle Awards, Best Non-Fiction Film for The Farm: Angola, USA with Jonathan Stack 1999: Emmy Award, Outstanding Non-Fiction Special (nominee) for The Farm: Angola, USA with Jonathan Stack, Gayle Gilman, Michael Cascio 1999: Academy Award, Best Documentary, Feature (nominee) for The Farm: Angola, USA with Jonathan Stack 2002: Sundance Film Festival, Documentary, Grand Jury Prize (nominee) for The Execution of Wanda Jean 2003: SXSW Film Festival, Documentary Feature, Audience Award for Girlhood 2006: Emmy Award, Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story - Long Form (nominee) for P.O.V. Street Fight with Rory Kennedy, Cara Mertes, Sally Jo Fifer, Marshall Curry 2007: Emmy Award, Outstanding Non-Fiction Special for Ghosts of Abu Ghraib with Rory Kennedy, Jack Youngelson, Diana Barrett, Sheila Nevins, Nancy Abraham 2009: Sundance Film Festival, Documentary, Grand Jury Prize (nominee) for Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech 2012: Emmy Award, Outstanding Non-Fiction Special (nominee) for Bobby Fischer Against the World with Sheila Nevins, Dan Cogan, Stanley F. Buchthal, Rory Kennedy, Matthew Justus, Nancy Abraham 2015: Peabody Award for What Happened, Miss Simone? 2016: Directors Guild of America Award, Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary (nominee) for What Happened, Miss Simone? 2016: Emmy Award, Outstanding Non-Fiction Special for What Happened, Miss Simone? with Sidney Beaumont, Amy Hobby, Justin Wilkes, Jayson Jackson 2016: Emmy Award, Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming (nominee) for What Happened, Miss Simone? 2016: Academy Award, Best Documentary, Feature (nominee) for What Happened, Miss Simone? with Amy Hobby, Justin Wilkes 2021: Peabody Award (nominee) for Nuclear Family
References
External links